The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Flin Flon City Council has applied to boost utility rates by one-third and expects to further review the fees in the coming years. A new City study has determined that a utility increase is required to keep pace with rising costs, most notably the new secondary sewage treatment plant. Council voted on Tuesday to apply to the province's Water Services Board to raise the annual rate from about $376 to approximately $500, a 33 per cent hike. The proposed increase would help cover the costs of operating the new sewage plant when it becomes operational in the final quarter of this year. Council anticipates it will have to review the utility rates again in 2006, the first full year the sophisticated plant will operate, and beyond to ensure they are appropriate. The plant, currently being built near Boundary Ave. along Ross Lake, is projected to have an annual operating cost of over $600,000, about twelve times the City's current waste water treatment budget. "I think the reality of it is, we quite possibly will be looking at rate studies over the next coming years before we can determine exactly what the rate is," said Coun. Cal Huntley at Tuesday's meeting. City Administrator Larry Fancy concurred. "I would expect we would be doing another rate study the following year [2006] and perhaps we will do a rate study for the next three or four years to try and bring those costs in line more evenly," said Fancy. The province's Water Services Board will now decide whether the 33 per cent increase goes into effect. The board is slated to hold a public meeting on the matter in Flin Flon next month. "The public needs to understand that we can't just go out there and increase rates," stressed Mayor Dennis Ballard. "The permission has to come from the Water Services Board and we have to justify that." Coun. Tom Therien noted the City has not raised utility rates in 14 years because rising costs were covered by a reserve fund. But "that reserve fund has since been drastically depleted," said Coun. Therien, adding that the utility department must be self-sufficient. Fancy said previously that the current utility rate Ð Flin Flonners on the flat rate system pay an average of just under $100 every three months Ð is perhaps the lowest in the province. Residents with meters pay according to the amount of water they consume.
